Doctors, nurses and others fighting Ebola through "tireless acts of courage and mercy" have been named Time magazine's 2014 Person of the Year.

The runners-up included Jack Ma, the founder of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba; protesters in Ferguson, Missouri; Russian President Vladimir Putin; and Kurdish Regional Government President Massoud Barzani.

Time's editor, Nancy Gibbs, praised "the people in the field, the special forces of Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres, the Christian medical relief workers of Samaritan's Purse and many others from allover the world".

She said they had "fought side by side with local doctors and nurses, ambulance drivers and burial teams".

Gibbs noted that the disease has struck doctors and nurses.

"The rest of the world can sleep at night because a group of men and women is willing to stand and fight," she wrote.

Antoine Petibon, head of international programs for the French Red Cross, which has been active in Guinea's anti-Ebola efforts, described Time's award as "great recognition for all these people who have been toiling in the shadows."

The disease has taken its toll in myriad ways.

In September, a team trying to inform villagers about Ebola in the forests of southern Guinea was at tacked by a mob. The bodies of eight people two local administrators, two medical officers, a preacher and three journalists-were found stuffed in a latrine.

Less than a month after arriving in Guinea, Dr Jorge Juan Guerra Rodriguez, a 60-year-old member of Cuba's medical aid team, died of malaria.

Henry Gray, MSF operations coordinator for Ebola response in Guinea and Liberia, said the spotlight should be on the patients and the thousands of people in Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia and Mali "who are doing their best to deal with this horrendous out break".